Molecular Characterization of Visual Pigments in Aquatic Mammals

对视觉，特别是色觉的科学探索可以追溯到18世纪，当时Dalton和Young等科学家试图解释色觉和色盲。色觉使动物能够根据颜色信息而不是亮度来进行区分。色觉帮助动物识别其环境中的重要物体。对水生哺乳动物色觉的研究为研究哺乳动物视觉系统对水生视觉环境的独特特性的适应提供了一个独特的机会。我们最近已经证明，宽吻海豚（Tursiops truncatus）缺乏大多数陆生哺乳动物常见的以锥为基础的二色视觉形式。这是一个令人兴奋的发现，它是对水生哺乳动物视觉色素的全面分子研究的开始，因为两个不同的哺乳动物目和一个亚目（鲸鱼、海豹和海牛）已经独立地适应了水生环境的生活。这个研究项目将确定是否所有的水生哺乳动物：鲸目动物、鳍科动物和海豚类动物都有与海豚相似的视觉系统，并且只表达两种光谱上不同的视觉色素：一种视紫红质和一种视锥色素，因此缺乏典型的哺乳动物的二色视觉。这项对水生哺乳动物色觉的比较研究将考察这些具有不同陆地祖先的哺乳动物的不同目和亚目从陆地环境迁移到水生环境时发生的适应过程。这个研究项目将使我的实验室能够继续成功地培养女性和少数民族的理科生。在我的实验室工作过的10个少数族裔和女性本科生中，有两个在读医学博士。其中五个目前在研究生院，两个在医学院。

The scientific exploration of vision and particularly color vision has its historical roots as far back as the eighteenth century, when scientists such as Dalton and Young attempted to explain color vision and color blindness. Color vision allows an animal to make distinctions based on chromatic information rather than luminosity. Color vision helps an animal identify important objects in their environment The study color vision in aquatic mammals provides an unique opportunity to examine the adaptation of the mammalian visual system to the unique properties of an aquatic visual envirom-nent. We have recently demonstrated that the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) lacks the common cone-based dichromatic form of color vision typical of most terrestrial mammals. This is an exciting finding, and it is the beginning of a comprehensive molecular study of the visual pigments of aquatic mammals for two different mammalian orders and one suborder (whales, seals and manatees) have independently adapted to life in an aquatic environment. This research project will determine if all aquatic mammals: Cetacea, Pinnipedia and Sirenia have a visual system similar to that of the dolphin and express only two spectrally distinct classes of visual pigments: one rhodopsin and one cone pigment and hence lack typical mammalian dichromatic color vision. This comparative study of color vision in aquatic mammals will examine the adaptive processes that occurred as these distinct orders and suborder of mammals with different terrestrial ancestors moved from a land to an aquatic environment.This research project will allow my laboratory to continue to successfully train both women and minority science students. Of the ten minority and women undergraduates who have worked in my laboratory, two are enrolled in MD/Ph.D. programs, five are currently in graduate school and two are in medical school.